1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a hinge assembly and, particularly, to a hinge assembly for a flat display monitor.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
With the widespread use and variety of computers, monitors, configured for use with such computers, also are available in a variety of structures. In general, a typical cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitor includes a display panel for displaying an image, a funnel coupled to the rear of the display panel, and an electron gun coupled to the rear of the funnel. This configuration becomes one of the disadvantageous limitations of the CRT Monitor in that the resulting total volume and weight of the CRT monitor are quite large. In addition to the problem mentioned above, the CRT monitor has a further limitation that a user is easily fatigued when watching the CRT monitor for long hours due to its low image quality For at least the problems set above, many people have recently started to use a flat display monitor, e.g., Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) monitor, instead of the conventional CRT monitors. Such flat display monitors generally offer the advantages greatly reduced size and weight characteristics and the ability to produce a high image quality. Further, the flat display monitor may help overcome space limitations through folding (such as with a laptop computer) or rotating (such as with a desktop monitor) so as to facilitate adjustment of the position thereof relative to the user.
The rotating or folding functions of the flat display monitor are realized by a hinge assembly. For example, a hinge assembly is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,698,063. The hinge assembly includes a shaft, a left and a right mount bracket, two stoppers, and two springs. The shaft is rotatably mounted and extends through the left and the right mount brackets, the two stoppers and the two springs. The left and the right mount brackets, respectively, include a bracket groove, thereby allowing each to engage with the respective stopper for each to limit the inclination angle. After the hinge assembly is used in a long time, however, the spring can be subject to abrasion and, in turn, may abrade other hinge portions. Due to wear of the elements of the hinge elements, the rotating range of the hinge assembly could change over time, also. Further, such a hinge assembly is relatively complicated.
Therefore, a new hinge assembly is desired in order to overcome the above-described shortcomings.